Dear Reader: Spring is in the air!

Photo of Carol and Fritz by Tom Brock

Spring is in the air! The beauty of buds bursting through soil is a sight that never gets old. The welcome arrival of migrating birds and everything about this revitalizing season is a blessing to behold. But Earth’s blessings are in peril, and the environment is at a tipping point. Coral reefs are disappearing, glaciers are melting, oceans are acidifying, species are going extinct and forests are in trouble. Climate change is behind many of these events, scientists confirm, pointing to fossil fuels, large-scale agriculture and other culprits. But what can we do?

In the words of Malala Yousafzai, the brave young woman who was shot by the Taliban for attending school and who later was awarded a Nobel Prize, “Do not wait for someone else to come and speak for you. It’s you who can change the world.”

We may not have the money to buy solar panels or an electric car, but our daily decisions have an impact. Take plastic. This ubiquitous polymer is everywhere, including in the bellies of sea animals. The convenience of plastic makes it hard to give up—unless there are viable alternatives, and there are. See “It’s a Wrap” for ways to kick the plastic habit.

This issue is filled with ideas to reduce your carbon footprint, whether it’s eating sustainable seafood, helping a community organically farm its way out of a food desert, or celebrating Earth Day. Like Malala also said, “When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”